brain dead!

[italymanru]

so i fed my brain coral some krill like to lfs said to. i put two pieces on its mouth and its tentacles grasped it and pulled it in. I was happy because I though I was helping it get some good nutrition. My room stank after that. The krill food is disgusting and my whole room smells even with the bottle closed... i just put a box of baking soda next to it to rid that smell... but what i am really here to say is later that i night i saw one of my peppermint shrimp snacking on the brain. I didnt think anything of it because it usually cruises on my corals and eats scraps and what not so i let it be. the next day i looked at the brain and it was hollowed out.... completely eaten with just the green outter rim left... the internal stomach and tentacles were all gone.... is this normal for the shrimp to do or did it just smell that krill on the brain and go nuts on it... im angry and wanna go flip out on the lfs for telling me to feed it that if the krill is the reason... please give me some input on this haha... thanks guys

[paulg]

I never feed mine. With enough lighting you dont have to feed it, maybe the shrimp did smell the krill and munched away on the coral as well. Sorry to hear about your loss

[tazzy695]

I would say that the shrip killed the brain to get to the krill and I am shure it was helped by some other critters also

if you plan on feeding corals like this I would recomend getting rid of that shrimp

[mattchew]

or the shrimp was doing its job... cleaning up a dead critter in tank

[sharkboyyyy!]

Originally Posted by paulg

I never feed mine. With enough lighting you dont have to feed it, maybe the shrimp did smell the krill and munched away on the coral as well. Sorry to hear about your loss

Nearly EVERY SINGLE CORAL we keep in our tanks benefits from target feeding. They're almost universally carnivorous as well.

These large, fleshy corals like brains,fungias, euphyllias, etc. all benefit GREATLY from target feeding... so that's NOT where you went wrong.

I'm really sorry to hear about your coral - that sucks

One or two things are likely:

1) That's a cambelback shrimp, not a Pepp... Happens, they look alike, and Camels tend to be destructive, especially when after food inside a coral (I seriously doubt a single peppermint shrimp could/would "devour a brain" overnight...).

2) the brain was already on the way out, and the "assault" by the shrimp pushed it over the top, it sluffed tissue (essentially like RTN) overnight and/or got picked clean by the clean-up crew.

What fish do you have in this tank? they too could easily have helped this brain find it's way to doom...

[deepbluesea]

i have seen pepermints and skunk cleaners attack corals after target feeding. if i do any feeding i give the shrimp a big meal before i feed the coral to keep them busy.i dobut the brain would feed if it was already on the way out usualy they have no feeding response if there checking out.sorry to hear about your brains misfortune.